Saint John puts its best facades forward when architects converge on city

It will be easy to spot the people attending the national architecture festival in Saint John this week: they'll be looking up.

"Other [tourists] might be interested in architecture, but the level of detail, the focus architects take looking at buildings is different," said Don Sterritt, president of the Architects' Association of New Brunswick.

Saint John is hosting the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's Festival of Architecture from May 30 to June 2.

More than 350 architects from across the country will converge on the city to take in its historic spaces and take part in exhibits, meetings, tours and presentations about architectural heritage, the environment and planning for the future.

Planning resilient designs to cope with a changing climate is the focus of this year's education panel, which is open to the public.

"A lot of the software we use has artificial intelligence built into it, and we're able to calculate climate change and the effects of climate change on buildings," said Gregory MacNeil, the institute's director for the Atlantic region.

"Canada has to meet its obligations under the Paris Accord, and we have to address it on a building side, because buildings consume so much energy in construction and usage."

Sterritt said the topic is close to his heart because it comes a month after the record-setting New Brunswick floods.

"It's important that architects be aware of these changes and be participants in it," Sterritt said Friday in an interview with Information Morning Saint John.

That session on June 2 will run from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Saint John Trade and Convention Centre.

The public is also invited to attend a Music of the Eye exhibit of architectural drawings of Saint John and its region from 1822 to 1914. The opening reception for the exhibit will be held May 29 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the New Brunswick Museum.

The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada represents more than 4,800 Canadian architects, faculty and graduates of Canadian schools of architecture.